Astronaut Eileen Collins on What It Was Like to Fly the Space Shuttle

Eileen Collins was the first female space shuttle pilot (on STS-63 in 1995) and first female shuttle commander (STS-93 in 1999). She also was one of the first Americans to rendezvous with the Russian MIR space station and a member of the famed "return to flight" crew following the Columbia disaster. With the shuttle program coming to a close this week, she tells PM what it was like to fly this vehicle and what its legacy should be.

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How do you feel about the retirement of the space shuttle program?

I am personally sad to see it go. But it was the right decision to retire the shuttleassuming the U.S. has a follow-on plan to keep launching people to the International Space Station and deep space. It was the wrong decision to retire the shuttle if the U.S. ends up with nothing.

What is it like to pilot the space shuttle?

There is a lot of pressure. The commander has only one shot at landing this national treasure, in full view of everyone on the planet. (Not to mention the fact that your peers and your engineers will scrutinize your landing to death afterward!) Emotions are distractions, so they need to be set aside, but you need to have a love for the mission and a steady hand. The entire experience is very humbling.

How does the shuttle handle?

The shuttle flies like a fly-by-wire airplane. It is very responsive in pitch and roll; I never needed to use rudder in flight. On the runway, the shuttle does not maneuver easily. Pilots need to use rudder after touchdown, then nosewheel steering at mid-speeds and brakes at slower speeds. I was always concerned with landing in a strong crosswindin the event of an abort landing on a narrow runwayas we did not have any real-world data from [flight testing]. The program has since logged much data, which will be used for future spacecraft design.

The heads-up display was also a great device to give pilots info in the fast-paced landing (300-knot approach and 195205 knot landing). The commander and pilot must use their eyes instead of "feel" for landing assistance, since you "feel" quite different returning from zero G. Your physical reactions can fool you. On returning to Earth, one G feels more like two to three Gs until the body is adapted back to Earth.

Where do you think the shuttle program failed?

Obviously it failed with the two accidents. Challenger was preventable; Columbia was more subtle, but still preventable. Other smaller "failures" were not really failures in my mind. When something is attempted for the first time, there will be failures, but that is part of the flight-test process.

What will be the program's legacy?

The vast majority of the shuttle program was a success. We learned that we should never again design a launch vehicle with the heat shield exposed to falling launch debris; we should not design a human-rated rocket without an escape system. The shuttle had a very strong and mature safety process, including Flight Readiness Reviews, Mission Management meetings, crew and flight controller training and ground processing. We learned so much about how a reusable spacecraft interacts with its environment, how it ages and what to design in or out next time. And also, remember the shuttle allowed more people to fly in space, from many diverse backgrounds and cultures.

What will be the future of U.S. space flight?

The U.S. needs more leadership is our space program from outside of NASA. We need strong presidential and congressional leadership. Yes, the country is in trouble with a busting budget, but don't cut investment in space. We spend less than 1 percent of the federal budget on space activities, yet they return so much to the strength and prestige of the country. The country needs more commercial leadership in space, but we are on track for that. [But] at this point, do not stop government programsthe commercial sector still needs to grow.

Stop discussing what the destination should be. Just pick somewhere and go!